Currently when an irrigation designer(s)/consultant(s)/specialist(s) or other marking individual(s) or marking personnel (all collectively referred to as “designer”) is employed to mark sprinkler locations for a golf course, the irrigation designer must be present at the golf course. The irrigation designer individual, while standing at a golf course hole, identifies various locations for the installation of the sprinklers and layout patterns using measuring tape or pre-measured wire, ropes or chains. The sprinkler location information can be entered into or collected by the designer or a second person using a GIS (Global Imaging System)/GPS (Global Positioning System) type of device for subsequent printing or display by the irrigation designer or another individual. Flags/stakes marking the sprinkler locations for the golf course hole can be installed at the time of their location determinations, or the saved information can be later used to place flags or stakes on the golf course hole. The installer (contractor) of the sprinkler system uses the flags or stakes to identify the location of the sprinklers for the golf course sprinkler system when physically installing the sprinklers and related system components at these locations.
As mentioned above, in the current practice the irrigation designer identifying the various sprinkler locations, as well as each sprinkler head ranges and spray patterns, must be present at the golf course in order to perform the service. Thus, the irrigation designer is restricted as to the number of golf course holes he or she can work on at one time, and is also restricted on the number of golf course locations that can be worked on. Thus, the irrigation designer is limited in the amount of golf course projects he or she can accept for a given time period. Also the process while on site requires the use of costly additional personnel from the golf course and/or irrigation contractor staff to assist in holding tapes during the various staking procedures. Depending on the staking or layout required, this can take as many as three to four additional personnel.
In addition, the staking effort is difficult due to the inability to see the golf hole in its entirety or enjoy a “bird's eye view” as is made possible during the original design preparation making accurate layout suffer and can result in the expensive addition of sprinklers to compensate for these inefficiencies.
The present invention is directed to overcoming this problem.